Tony Nnadi, NINAS
16 March 2025
(Being a Response on behalf of NINAS to Nigeria’s reversion to its old National Anthem and futile attempts of Government of Nigeria to conjure patriotism in the People by getting them to sing the National Anthem).
When you say one thing and do the exact opposite, the result you get is from what you do, and not what you say. The further result is the complete destruction of trust in that entity that constantly does the opposite of what it says. This is the summary of what has happened to Nigeria as it struggles to convince its diverse constituent peoples to believe in the lofty declarations of its Anthem, old or new; OR in its many lofty policy declarations as it all boils down to saying one thing and doing the exact opposite.
What happened to the 1970 loud declaration of “No Victor, No Vanquished” and the lofty Promise of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reintegration (the 3-Rs)? Nigeria said one thing and did the opposite.
What about the Amnesty Program in the Niger Delta which was supposed to be a mere First-Step towards ending hostilities and addressing the fundamental issues fueling the Agitation? Nigeria turned it into the last step and an elaborate bribery scheme to divide and conquer as soon as oil production resumed. Saying one thing and doing the opposite.
With the pogroms of 1966, the Odi Massacre, the Ogoni Judicial Murders and the EndSARS Massacre at Lagos Toll Plaza in October 2020, can the Proprietors of Unitary Nigeria truly claim to have handed to the younger generation a banner without stain as proclaimed in the reinstated old National Anthem?
What about the current Unitary Constitution of Nigeria which is erected on the three egregious Falsehoods that:
- “We The Peoples of Nigeria” (ie Constituent Ethnic Components)
- “Having Firmly and Solemnly Resolve to live in Unity as one Indivisible and Indissoluble Nation”
- “Do Hereby Make, Enact and Give To Ourselves the Following Constitution”?
Whereas the so-called “1999 Constitution of Nigeria” which was imposed by Abdusalam Abubakar’s Decree No.24 of 1999 (just like Olusegun Obasanjo’s Decree which imposed the so-called 1979 Constitution on Nigeria) tells the full story of how the Constitution came to be and is therefore proof that the Constitution was not at all an act of the Peoples of Nigeria, neither did they meet to solemnly resolve to be one political union or to negotiate the terms of that Union. This is against the backdrop of the lofty claim in Section 14, Subsection 2a of that Constitution that, “Sovereignty Belongs to the Peoples of Nigeria from whom Government, through this Constitution, Derives All its Powers and Authority”. Again Nigeria said one thing and did the exact opposite concerning the very foundation on which the Country and its Democracy is being constructed.
Any wonder then that those being invited to believe in Nigeria are fleeing abroad in many directions and refusing to believe?
We can change the Anthem of Nigeria as many times as we wish or sing the Anthem of Nigeria a thousand times a day; if the Peoples of the Distressed Federation of Nigeria who are currently trapped in the Union of Death that Unitary Nigeria has become for them, do not sit down to renegotiate, redefine and recommit to being One Political Union, we have no Union. Nigeria will remain the Mere Geographical Expression that Awolowo called it and the Mistake of 1914 Ahmadu Bello described it as.
No honest person in his right mind will believe in an entity of Fraud. The current pretenses at Unity will eventually collapse like a pack of cards when sufficient pressures come upon our well-known fault-lines as One Political Union. Singing of National Anthem will not resolve the Deep-Seated Issues around Nigeria’s Unity neither will further rounds of National Elections in 2027 under Nigeria’s disputed Unitary Constitution 1999.
The Redemption Pathway for Nigeria and Nigerians right now is to acknowledge the truth of its False Foundation and to embrace the Five-Point Constitutional Reconstruction Proposition by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS), tabled before the Country since December 16, 2020.
Link to the publication (Notice of Constitutional Force Majeure declared 16 December 2020) HERE:
https://guardian.ng/features/notice-of-constitutional-grievances-declaration-of-constitutional-force-majeure-and-demand-for-transitioning-process-for-an-orderly-reconfiguration-of-the-constitutional-basis-of-the-federation/